Miami Palms Blog

Jaspero Gonzalez has been a monster for the Palms for the past couple of years, allowing the team to part with Rico Gomez and Ryan Henning over the past couple of years. He is one of the best second basemen in the league at the plate, hitting 52 home runs over the past two seasons and owning an average of at least .320 every season he has been in the league. He was originally expected to be a utility player, but his bat has proved to be a valuable cog to the team's offense, and likely will remain that way going forward.

Felix Gonsales has been the strongest arm out of the bullpen for two of the last three years, and with Ivan Fernandez struggling in 2011, the Palms decided to give the young Venezuelan a shot out in the rotation. Gonsales is a good control pitcher that could use a few more strikeouts to bolster his numbers, but he has good sink to his pitches that induces a lot of ground balls and prevents home runs.

The Palms needed to add an additional infielder over the offseason, and did so via a trade with the Royals. One of hte players that came over was Johnny Giavotella, a light hitting second baseman who can play multiple infield positions. Giavotella likely won't be used a whole lot, given the talent already there, and his .247 average as a rookie, but the Palms definitely hope he will improve in South Florida.

Ivan Fernandez struggled mightily with his first season in big leagues. He started the season fairly strong, but ended on an 8 game losing streak and with a 6.24 ERA. His problem was control and an overall lack of strikeouts. His fatigue at the end of the tear certainly didn't help his stats, but the Palms front office is hoping that a move to the bullpen will help in all accounts, especially with a Felix Gonsales' ceiling.

Billy Dupont was originally pegged to be the replacement for Frank Sohn if he ever left. Instead, Aaron Rogers left and Sohn stayed, so Dupont learned first base. A former outfielder, Dupont is considerably more athletic than the standard first baseman, but in a strong lineup, he doesn't stand out as an elite hitter. His eye at the plate is one of the worst in the league, and doesn't seem to be getting better as his career progresses. Still, there isn't much competition within the organization, so Dupont seems fairly entrenched at the position.

Steve Drysdale has done poorly at AAA when given regular playing time, but has done very well in his brief time at the Major League level. The thought is that his conditioning isn't, and hasn't been that good, which means playing every day tends to cause him to wear down. The Palms feel like, at the major league level, he can be best used as a bat off the bench. At his age now, it seems like Drysdale won't ever develop into much more than a high average bench player, and they gave evidence to that by replacing Ayoz Sadan and Randy Winn with Matt Holliday and Nick Markakis.

Coco Crisp has thrived in the hitter friendly Palms Park over the past few years, rediscovering a power stroke that he had begun to lose before arriving in Miami. In his past two years, he hit 19 and 18 home runs in his past two years after a rough 2009. In 2008, his first year with the Palms, he had 20. Given the roster, he will still continue to provide value as a lead off hitter, and will generally give the team a good start, seeing as how he has been able to crush the ball the past couple of seasons.

Kevin Correia will be in his second season with the Palms when the season begins in April. The Palms enjoyed some success from Correia in 2011, but were troubled by his limited workload. It was disappointing in part because he led the team in many rate statistics, like k/9, ERA and FIP. He could be a strong pitcher for the Palms if he stays on the mound a little bit longer through his starts. He averaged a little more than 5 innings a start in 2011 despite his decent numbers.